You probably remember the Porsche 918 Spyder hypercar, with 887 hp, sold for €800,000 and yet eligible for the ecological bonus at the time. It must be said that this model was a plug-in hybrid which, officially, only consumed 3.3 liters per 100 km despite its large 4.6 liter V8.
This is deliberately a caricatured case and the regulator has already largely stuck its nose in it, but it clearly shows the problem blamed on this type of engine which only rarely meets its approval values in real life.
Regulatory change
The plug-in hybrid has two advantages: it makes it possible to avoid any form of ecological penalty, even with unreasonable weight and power characteristics, such as the BMW XM, but also to make a smoother transition to all-electric and the fears of restricted autonomy that go with it.
But for the second case, you have to play the game by recharging the battery very regularly in order to drive as much as possible solely on electric power, which unfortunately most PHEV drivers do not do. It must be said that companies are fond of this alternative, which is not very restrictive and economical in terms of taxes. Alas, employees only charge very little for more or less valid reasons, either because they don’t want to bother with it, or more prosaically because it’s not that simple without a home terminal.
In real conditions, and even more so for company cars, PHEVs too rarely go through the charging box. © Peugeot
European regulations will then change in order to get closer to the real uses of plug-in hybrids, which will see their WLTP emissions doubled from 2025. This is only a step since these same emissions could be tripled from 2027.
While the current approval cycle estimates that electric represents 70% to 85% of driving time, according to the NGO Transport & Environment (T&E) company vehicles only actually run with the battery between 11 and 15% of the time.
This problem of excess emissions is not linked to manufacturers, but to habits adopted by the driver, which do not correspond to the profile envisaged by the regulatory measurement cycle
The European Commission recently issued a report concluding that PHEVs emit 3.5 times more CO2 in real use than their current certification value indicates, which is not ecologically acceptable.
What solutions for manufacturers?
According to an impact study carried out by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), published in June 2022, the average consumption of a PHEV within the European Union was 4.0 to 4.4 l per 100 km for a private vehicle, and 7.6 to 8.4 l per 100 km for a company vehicle, even though the official WLTP consumption figures were 1.6 to 1.7 l per 100 km. Glaring differences that need to be corrected.
BYD has just unveiled a PHEV capable of covering 2000 km in one go, with a slight nuance. © BYD
Thus, a Peugeot 508 PHEV 225 hp, which today announces 25 g of CO2 per kilometer, should go above 50 g/km next year. This will be the case for many models, and this threshold of 50 g/km is below which a vehicle can be considered “clean”. De factomost hybrids will be pushed towards the door and companies that are fond of them will have to review their strategy.
In fact, this should transfer part of these purchases to 100% electric vehicles, unless manufacturers react by offering electric ranges much greater than their PHEVs. In fact, the bigger the battery, the lower the CO2 emissions. In these conditions, many manufacturers will scrutinize BYD which has just announced a PHEV powertrain capable of covering more than 2000 km in one go.